Mental Pivot #25: Filters, Philosophy, AI
Spinal Tap, selectivity and the digital media deluge, “Philosophy the Basics” by Nigel Warburton, and a GPT-3 enabled copywriting tool.
I’ve been feeling the weight of the digital media deluge acutely this past month. The abundance of content online, in my inbox, newsfeed, and social media is overwhelming, even paralyzing, at times. I know I need better tools for wading through it all—better tools for being more selective about what I consume.
This Is Spinal Tap is a 1984 mockumentary about the exploits of a fictitious and overly pretentious heavy metal band. The film contains a wealth of memorable quotes and funny moments, but one in particular stands out to me. It appears in the closing credits when the band’s frontman David St. Hubbins makes an observation in his typically pompous and oblivious manner:
I believe virtually everything I read, and I think that is what makes me more of a selective human than someone who doesn’t believe anything.
While the film plays for laughs and predates the web and social media, there’s a touch of truth in this otherwise ridiculous statement. It’s easy to laugh at David St. Hubbins, but his comment makes me wonder if I’m being selective enough about what I’m reading and whether I’m regularly making smart media consumption choices.
I don’t have a definitive strategy for dealing with this problem, but there are a handful of ideas and mental filters I repeatedly turn to when selecting what to consume and what to avoid.
Here are some of the ideas I think about when interacting with online content:
Alignment: Is the author trying to sell something (product, service, or even an ideological position?). Is there an obvious or hidden agenda at play? Are the objectives of the content and author aligned with mine or are they orthogonal? Unaligned objectives aren’t necessarily bad, but being aware of them provides added context.
Credibility: Is the underlying source credible? Credentials, experience, and expertise are one avenue to credibility. Transparency, honesty, humility offer another pathway when expertise is lacking. One could argue that a good argument has intrinsic value regardless any external considerations (including the qualities of the author). Still, a baseline of trust and credibility is a good starting point for any interaction.
Durability: Is the content enduring, evergreen and well-constructed or is it cheap, time-sensitive, and ultimately disposable? My general preference is for evergreen content that will be as useful tomorrow as it is today. I also find it curious that I’m frequently more attentive about the quality of the shoes I buy than I am about the content I consume.
Emotion: Are my emotions being manipulated in insidious or unscrupulous ways? Is the content trying to gain attention and elicit a response by stoking outrage, anger, greed, or fear? The internal warning flags immediately fly when I encounter content that elicits a visceral response.
Significance: Is this worth my attention or is it trivial? Why is it important to me? I have to remind myself of this idea constantly. For instance, a wall of comments below an article might tempt me as a matter of habit, but should I concern myself with the casual comments from an anonymous individual who I know nothing about? That said, there is a time and place for enjoying trivialities; I just prefer being intentional about it.
I can’t pretend that I use these mental filters 100% of the time nor can I assert that this approach is foolproof. It’s a work in progress (and warrants further exploration in future blog posts). Caveats aside, I like to think that an extra bit of mindfulness regarding digital content can help me be more selective about what I consume and be a little less like David St. Hubbins.
Now onto the updates...
What’s New on the Blog:
Book Notes: “Philosophy: The Basics” by Nigel Warburton
This is a satisfying introduction to philosophy structured around key philosophical themes as opposed to a chronological history or account of key figures (e.g. Plato, Descartes, Kant, etc.). These themes comprise fundamental, existential questions that humans have been pondering for millennia: Does God exist? What does it mean to be good? Am I dreaming? How can I know something with certainty? Do we possess souls?
Warburton is a British philosopher noted for his efforts to popularize the subject; he has published a half-dozen introductory philosophy books and also hosts a long-running podcast, Philosophy Bites. I enjoyed this book thoroughly—it’s been years since I last read Plato, Descartes, Hume, et.al. in college. Warburton reminds me that, in the hand of an effective communicator, philosophy is accessible, universal, and anything but boring.
What’s next on my reading list: Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks (2018).
Articles:
Don’t Go Down the Rabbit Hole: Given the new realities of digital media—info abundance, alignment and agendas, misinformation—it follows that new literacy skills might be needed. Charlie Warzel looks at the contemporary thinking tools like lateral reading and the SIFT method.
The Feynman Learning Technique: Pick a concept you want to learn: 1) pretend you’re teaching it to a 5th grader, 2) fill in the gaps in your understanding, 3) simplify your explanation, 4) communicate it. Reminds me of one of my all-time favorite subreddits: Explain Like I’m Five (where users attempt to explain complex ideas simply).
Google Analytics: Stop Feeding the Beast: Caspar von Wrede reminds us that Google is an advertising platform and that GA, as appealing as it is for small companies and indie bloggers, is a direct input into their lucrative data-mining machine.
How to Have Better Arguments Online: Ian Leslie offers a host of compelling ideas for cultivating productive disagreements including context, respect, empathy, and generosity.
Is It Worth Reading If I Forget Everything I Read?: Per Ralph Waldo Emerson: “I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.”
Is the Western Way of Raising Kids Weird?: Kelly Oakes considers cultural differences in child-rearing: scheduled naps, bed-sharing (or lack thereof), and bedtimes. Naturally, cultural values, economics, and tradition play significant roles.
Notes on Technology in the 2020s: Economist Eli Dourado surveys key industries primed for growth and innovation: biotech (mRNA therapies, CRISPR, protein-folding, longevity), energy (renewables, batteries, fusion), transportation (electrification, autonomous driving, supersonic aviation), space (cost-effective launch costs, satellite communications, Mars), info tech (AR, VR, crypto). It makes me excited for the future. Shoutout to newsletter subscriber “EZ” who sent me this link.
Relax. Machines Already Took Our Jobs: Amidst the existential panic over Artificial Intelligence, Marc Weber writes about the history of machine automation—arguing that many of those physical tasks also involved mental activity (like the act of bell ringing)—and the lessons the past offers to the future.
Podcasts
Exponential View: Fixing the Social Media Crisis: Azeem Azhar talks with Sinan Aral, director of MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy about a timely and pervasive topic.
HBR IdeaCast: Bill Gates on How Business Leaders Can Fight Climate Change: Gates published a new book recently and is making the rounds on the podcast circuit. I enjoy podcast interviews as a shortcut into the highlights for books I don’t plan to read but want to know about. Interesting thoughts about green technology and innovation.
Making Sense: Ricky Gervais: Sam Harris and Ricky Gervais converse about a wide range of topics over the course of three “phone calls”: dreams, freedom of expression, comedy, free will and more. Here’s the entire series: First Call, Second Call, Third Call.
Odds & Ends:
Writesonic is an Artificial Intelligence writing tool (it can be demoed for free). It’s primary use case is to help advertising and promotional copy. You give it a few parameters (e.g. some keywords or a topic sentence) and the tool outputs coherent sentences, paragraphs and even complete articles. I tested it and was simultaneously amazed and horrified by the machine-generated output. The tool uses the vaunted GPT-3 language model.
If you’re looking for a comprehensive overview of GPT-3 enabled writing tools, Yash Wate wrote an article, GPT-3 Tools for Copywriting, that highlights a few more commercial solutions.
If you’re scratching your head wondering “What on earth is GPT-3?”, don’t worry. Jordan Harrod delivers a balanced overview of the technology in a 13-minute YouTube video. Azeem Azhar also has a podcast episode How GPT-3 Is Shaping Our AI Future in which he talks to Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI which is the research lab that developed GPT-3.
Since this section of the newsletter unexpectedly turned into “Cool AI Stuff” this week, I’ll leave you with one last thing: Time-Travel Rephotography is a project that takes old black and white photographs of historical figures (marred host of visual artifacts) and restores them in color and greater real-world fidelity using a combination of clever techniques (the sibling morphing technique is really cool).
This Is What Abraham Lincoln May Have Looked Like (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) is the tl;dr version of the rephotography project above. The video is from the awesome YouTube channel Two-Minute Papers which distills recent computer science research into short videos.
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